OSHA cracks down on distracted driving: Are your workers pressured to text while at the wheel?

You know that text-messaging while driving multiplies the risk of accidents. But do you know whether your people are texting while they drive on company business?

If you don’t, it would be a good idea to find out. DOL Secretary Hilda Solis has just announced that OSHA will be cracking down on texting at the wheel.

The new OSHA program to combat distracted driving has a substantial education and PR component. But its centerpiece is enforcement.

Here’s how Solis put it: “When OSHA receives a credible complaint that an employer requires texting while driving or who organizes work so that texting is a practical necessity, we will investigate and where necessary issue citations and penalties to end this practice.”

Do a self-check

Although Solis didn’t say so, it sounds as if OSHA would be acting under the General Duty clause.

Safety Directors might want to partner with HR to:

Review job descriptions to make sure none appears to require texting while traveling, and

Check whether any employees feel as if they must text while driving to get their jobs done on time.

Connect with Workplace Safety Blogger, Lori Sereditch

Everyone loves a story of redemption. After three fatalities in 2006 and a related $1.2 million fine, bridge-painting contractor Thomas Industrial Coatings of Pevely, MO, did an about face. The company hired safety consultants and revamped its safety program. Now, nearly 10 years later, it has suffered its first fatality since it turned its safety […]

A worker made a fatal mistake on a scaffold 100 feet high on a hanging wall scaffold on the side of the Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA. He was seeking to lower the scaffold, so he removed wooden planking with a piece of plywood. (Apparently, the planking interfered with lowering the scaffold.) That plywood snapped […]

Most companies are tight-lipped following an accident, so it’s no surprise that Fort Erie, NY-based Rich Products’ managers haven’t released details of a tragedy that killed one contract worker and injured two more after an ammonia leak. But most safety pros can take an educated guess. The company had an emergency-response plan and team in […]

Setting up equipment presents special challenges. Usually, you are the first person on the job, so if conditions have changed since the last shift, you could find out the hard way. Also, it may be your job to install the safety equipment—requiring extra care. And lastly—as in the case of a recent tragedy—the focus on […]

A workplace fatality investigation will no doubt focus on how and why a vent opened that allowed hydrogen sulfide gas to spray a worker. The worker at a Douglasville, GA, refinery was sprayed by the gas, and then likely lost his footing backing away. He fell 20 feet off a platform, and died later at […]

Request a Free Demo

We'd love to show you how this industry-leading training system can help you develop your team. Please fill out this quick form or give us a call at 877-792-2172 to schedule your one-on-one demo with a Rapid Learning Specialist.